How to Take Care of a Stray Cat
by ShadowX-Over.Writer
Summary: Ikuto passes out due to the dark energy leaking out of his violin. When he wakes up, he finds himself in an unfamiliar room... Rated T just in case


Those of you who know me are probably wondering why I'm making an Ikuto fic. Well, despite the angry declarations I make about him, I do like him and well, decided why not make a fic about him. I have also come to like a pairing with him and a certain someone else. You're probably all wondering who could I possibly like with Ikuto and some are probably scared, but you'll just have to read and find out. And no, this isn't supposed to be a bashing fic, I won't stoop as low as those Tadase bashers. I tried making this into a oneshot, but it just got longer and longer. In other words, I suck at making oneshots so I'll be making a series of oneshots based on this couple. Otherwise, sit back, relax, and enjoy. ^-^

Rated: T just in case, 'cause Ikuto is unpredictable

_Disclaimer: I own nothing, not Shugo Chara or TOV_

**Warning: To those who won't want to see Ikuto getting hurt, please turn away now. You have been warned**

**How to Take Care of a Stray Cat**

Men in black suits wearing dark shades rushed up and down several alleyways, making sure it was totally empty before leaving to look somewhere else.

A few raindrops hit the ground before pouring down on all of Tokyo, creating a musty and damp smell to hang in the air.

"Damn, we'll have to search again once the rain stops." One of the men said as the other nodded before both rushed to the car parked just outside the alley.

Yoru poked his head around the corner, watching them drive away in a hurry.

He let out a relieved sigh before floating back around the corner over to Ikuto.

"They're gone, now's a good time to get going, nya~" Yoru said as Ikuto looked up at him with half-lidded eyes as the rain pelted against him, soaking him from head to toe in seconds.

"…Nn…" Ikuto was panting as he hugged himself to try and get himself warmer.

"Ikuto!" Yoru cried realizing that Ikuto's condition was worsening with each passing moment.

The strain of the dark energy residing within his violin was taking its toll on Ikuto's body, rendering him completely vulnerable.

Yoru could see Ikuto's breath come out in small puffs of air as a pained expression came over Ikuto's face. He had no idea what to do or help him. Ikuto was in severe trouble but he couldn't bring him back to Amu's room since they both had decided it'd be best to leave.

He could tell Ikuto was getting weaker and weaker, and the rain wasn't doing much help either. He somehow had to get Ikuto somewhere safe, away from Easter's goons and out of the rain. But where…?

A sudden shadow loomed over them, causing Yoru to whirl around before a hand slowly reached down towards them…

* * *

_"Ikuto! Ikuto!"_

Ikuto could hear someone calling him but he couldn't move. But he felt different. Unlike in the alleyway, he felt warmer and more comfortable.

'Where…am I?' Ikuto said to himself as he tried to open his eyes.

He trembled slightly when a sudden light hit him, causing him to scrunch his eyes at the intense light beating down on him.

"Ugh…"

"Ikuto!"

When his eyes adjusted to the light, he opened his eyes more to see Yoru floating right in front of him.

"Yoru…?" Ikuto muttered in a raspy voice as Yoru's golden eyes moistened with relief.

"Ikuto! I thought you were a goner!" Yoru cried hugging the side of Ikut's face.

Ikuto slowly sat up from where he was lying and warily looked around his surroundings. He found himself in a room cluttered with mechanical parts strewn all over the floor and blueprints scattered all over the place.

"What is this place?" Ikuto asked, suspecting this place to be part of Easter.

He spotted a door across the room and wavered slightly as he rose to his feet.

"Ikuto, are you sure you're well enough to move?" Yoru asked in concern.

Ikuto merely grunted in response before carefully making his way towards the door through the sea of clutter.

As he got closer, he heard someone mumbling incoherently and stayed on high alert. He slowly crept up to the door and quietly opened it as to not make a sound before slowly peaking through the crack in the doorway.

He spotted someone sitting in a dimly lit room with only a lamp to light it. They were working at a desk, scribbling something down as they were muttering to themselves. Ikuto couldn't quite make out what the person was saying before opening the door some more, allowing himself in the dark room.

Books were stacked up all over the place and a blackboard with several notes was pinned up all over it was sitting to the side. Everything was so cluttered that Ikuto thought it'd be impossible for someone to actually live here.

The person at the desk was in some sort of robe with a hood, making them look pretty suspicious. They were muttering to themselves in a deep, dark voice as if in deep concentration. As Ikuto made it over to them, he stood directly behind the person, watching them as they continued writing down some more notes. They all seemed to be math functions and formulas at a high level, higher than a college level perhaps.

"Oi." Ikuto called though the person carried on what they were doing, unaware of Ikuto's presence.

Ikuto narrowed his eyes as he spoke a little louder while reaching out to shake their shoulder. "Oi…!"

Before he could touch them, the person suddenly whirled around and punched Ikuto across the face. (Think like how Yukari smacked Kairi across the face in her sleep ^-^)

The force sent Ikuto crashing to the floor while cupping the side of his face.

"Shut up! I'm trying to concentrate! Can't you see that I'm busy?!" the person cried angrily.

Ikuto widened his eyes slightly. 'That voice sounds awfully like…'

He looked up to see the person's hood had dropped back off their head, revealing a face of…

"…A girl?" Ikuto said in surprise.

The girl had short, messy brown hair and bright greenish-blue eyes. She was on the short side and wore goggles on top of her head. Ikuto had to admit that she had a cute face, despite the face she was glaring down at him with a fiery look.

Her expression then softened into a bored one realizing who it was.

"Oh, it's you." The girl said in a casual tone before turning back to her work.

"You can't punch Ikuto like that and not even say sorry! Apologize, nya!" Yoru demanded but the girl carried on as if they weren't even there.

"Hmph, looks like she can't see me." Yoru said as Ikuto shrugged before approaching her again.

The girl took notice of his presence this time and turned around in her chair with an annoyed look.

"What?" she said rather harshly though Ikuto didn't seem phased by her apparent hostility.

"Care to tell me where I am?" Ikuto asked.

"My house in case you hadn't noticed. Look, I have important things to attend to so I'll make it brief. I found you passed out in the alleyway and I brought you here. You can stay as long as you want as long as you stay out of my way, got it?" the girl said in the most unwelcoming way.

Before Ikuto could respond, the girl turned her back to him and continued working. "Good."

'She's worse than Amu…' Ikuto thought.

When he was staying in Amu's room, she had never ignored him like this girl was. 'Don't get in her way.' What and the pillars of books and clutter doesn't?

Ikuto felt a little annoyed and insulted by how he was being treated, but of course, he'd been treated worse so he just shrugged it off.

"Could I at least know the name of the person who's home I'm staying at?" Ikuto asked as the girl seemingly ignored him again.

He let out a sigh before the girl finally answered, "Rita. Rita Mordio."

* * *

The following day, Ikuto felt his condition worsen, as he felt even more drained and tired. He started shivering uncontrollably and was coughing vigorously.

"Oh…This is what happens when you sit out in the rain like that, nya." Yoru said worriedly as he found a stray blanket and placed it on Ikuto.

Yoru glared over Rita, who wasn't paying any sort of attention to Ikuto, who was suffering from a fever at the moment.

"Nya! How can you just sit there and let Ikuto over here suffer!" Yoru cried although his cries feel deaf to Rita's ears as she could not see or hear Guardian Characters despite her age.

Rita continued on as if nothing new was going on, scribbling notes down on a piece of paper before crumbling it up and tossing it over her shoulder, missing the trash can entirely. One of the paper balls she threw accidentally clonked Yoru causing him to hiss at her, though she was unaware of it.

Yoru let out a frustrated growl before floating back over to Ikuto and felt his head with his paw.

He jerked his hand back in bewilderment, feeling his head as hot as it was. Panic rose within his small body as he looked frantically for something cold to possibly cool Ikuto down.

'That girl is absolutely useless!' Yoru raged within his head as he flew through out the house, desperately searching for a cloth of some sort to dip into some cold water.

When he left, he failed to notice Rita glance slightly over Ikuto, who was panting due to his fever.

After staring at him for a moment, she turned her chair back facing the desk.

Everywhere he looked, there was some sort of gizmo or other and books stacked up all over the place.

If Yoru didn't know any better, he might have thought a hurricane hit her house as everything was so cluttered and disorganized.

'How can a living being actually live here?' Yoru thought before shaking his head to clear his thoughts. 'No! I have to focus on Ikuto!'

Unfortunately, Yoru's search to find a cooling implement was unsuccessful, as he couldn't tell up from down in that house.

'Ikuto…' Yoru worried as he hurried back to the room where Ikuto was lying unconscious.

When he entered the room he was shocked to see Rita kneeling beside Ikuto with a bowel of water and a wet cloth.

She quickly wiped away the sweat that beaded Ikuto's forehead before placing a wet cloth on his forehead.

"Sheesh, this is such a pain. He just had to go and get himself sick." Rita grumbled with an annoyed expression.

Ikuto's breathing seemed to have evened out a little as Rita let out another exasperated sigh before getting up and walked back to her desk.

Yoru watched as the girl retreated back to her desk before floating down to Ikuto.

"Nya, his breathing seems to be getting better. Thank goodness, nya." Yoru sighed in relief before settling down beside him.

He glanced back over at Rita, who once again was working on something at her desk.

'Who is this girl…?' Yoru said to himself before falling asleep beside Ikuto.

* * *

"Ikuto! I'm bored, nya!" Yoru whined as Ikuto rolled his eyes.

A few days had passed and Ikuto was feeling a little better and had enough strength to walk around a bit.

However Ikuto had to agree with his would-be-self. It felt as if it was the other day that Rita allowed him to stay at her house and he was already bored out of his mind. All she did was work on whatever she was doing at that desk of hers, not even trying to make conversation with him. She hadn't even cared to ask for his name. It would seem like the first thing to ask when the person you drag into your house wakes up after being unconscious in an alleyway. There wasn't anything to do nor did Rita even give him anything to do.

Ikuto couldn't even lie down because all the furniture and the floor was covered with clutter. He had to push some of the stuff to the side to even give himself room to even sit down.

'I still can't see how she can live in this trash heap.' Ikuto thought once more as he ran a finger across the floor only to find it covered with dust and dirt.

It seemed to him that Rita didn't even sleep, much less care to clean up her house.

Yoru let out a bored yawn again before floating over to Ikuto with an annoyed expression.

"Is it really worth it to stay here even if we're avoiding those Easter goons?" Yoru asked, hoping Ikuto had an alternative.

Ikuto leaned back against the wall with his arms behind his head. "Probably not, but I'm still not up for moving right now."

Yoru let out a groan before floating over to the top of one of the book towers and gently laid himself on top of it. Unfortunately, he set it unbalanced and in a second the whole tower of books came crashing down on top of him.

Ikuto let out a sigh as he suddenly heard the chair to Rita's desk pull out.

"What the hell are you doing over there?!" Rita shouted as she stomped over to him.

"I didn't do anything." Ikuto said casually as Rita narrowed her eyes at him.

"Then how did those books fall down? Sheesh, now everything is all messed up!" Rita grumbled before stomping over to the fallen books and started restacking them.

Ikuto found it a bit ironic how she can leave all this clutter around the house and when one tower of books falls over, she thinks it's a mess.

He watched curiously as Rita stacked the books up again before throwing him a glare, causing him to lift an eyebrow.

"Don't. Touch. Anything." Rita said in a dangerous tone before trudging back over to her work desk.

"Someone is moody." Ikuto said under his breath as Rita paused and looked over at him.

"What did you say?" Rita demanded.

Ikuto looked away with a blank expression as Rita walked back over to him and stood directly in front of him.

"I couldn't quite hear you. Talk a little louder so I can hear you better." Rita said in a threatening tone causing a chill to run up Ikuto's spine.

Ikuto muttered something under his breath before a mad-mark appeared over Rita's head.

She cracked her knuckles with a deadly look in her eyes, causing both Ikuto and Yoru to flinch.

Rita loomed dangerously over Ikuto and Yoru with a dark expression, causing both of them to sweatdrop.

(Few minutes later…)

Ikuto groaned in pain as every part of his body throbbed in pain. For a shortie, Rita knew how to hit **_hard_**.

"She's scary, nya…" Yoru muttered while looking over Ikuto with a terrified expression.

Slowly and carefully, Ikuto sat up while rubbing the back of his neck. Rita was back over at her desk, continuing her work once again.

Never had he thought that a girl would actually have the gull to beat him up. It was embarrassing now that he thought about it. Hopefully the guys back at school wouldn't find out about this, also hoping that Amu and Tadase wouldn't either. The kiddie king would probably have a good laugh to hear that a girl, much shorter than him, beat up his onii-tan no less.

A knock was heard at the front door, much to Ikuto's surprise. Rita pulled herself out of her desk as she casually walked over to the door. Yoru looked out the window before widening his eyes in shock.

"Ikuto! Easter goons!" Yoru cried.

Ikuto widened his eyes in shock before he quickly got up and darted behind one of the walls of stacked up books.

Rita ignored his little episode before she opened the door to be greeted by two men with black suits and sunglasses.

Ikuto peaked from around the corner, his suspicions rising. Did Rita tell Easter that he was here? How did she even know he worked for them? Was she deceiving him all this time?

"We're here to pick up what we ordered." One of the men said as Ikuto's eyes widened in surprise.

"Yeah, yeah, hold on." Rita said before walking over to one of the tables covered with different objects.

She shoved the other machines out of the way and grabbed the one nearest to the back before walking back over to the Easter workers.

"This is what you wanted, right? A something or other to harness some kind of energy? Here." Rita said handing the Easter workers a strange machine of some sort.

They nodded curtly before handing Rita an envelope and turned to leave. Before Rita closed the door, they paused and looked back over at her.

"You haven't seen a tall blue-haired teen around have you?"

Rita lifted an eyebrow. "Why?"

"He is a very important Easter worker and we've been looking for him for a while now. Have you seen anyone that fits the description of tall, lean, blue hair, and usually wears all black?"

Rita's eyes shifted over to where Ikuto was hiding before turning her gaze back onto the men in front of her.

"Nope, doesn't ring any bells." Rita said lifting up her hands in a very casual way with a disinterested look.

"I see. Thank you for your time." With that, both men left and headed for the car.

Rita closed the door behind her as she ripped open the envelope, revealing a descent amount of cash.

"What was that?" Ikuto asked coming out from his hiding place as Rita continued counting her pay.

"What was what?" Rita asked not even glancing up at Ikuto.

"Why were those people here?" Ikuto said his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Rita glanced up at him with an annoyed expression before sighing. "They're just people from this company that I work for sometimes."

"You work for them?"

"Not all the time. They sometimes give me jobs to make stuff for them and I take it." Rita said casually, oblivious to Ikuto's apparent anxiety towards them.

"Do you have any idea what they do?" Ikuto asked. He was afraid that they would use Rita as some sort of tool like himself if she decided to become a full-time worker for Easter.

Rita shrugged. "No, but as long as it pays for the bills I don't care. Besides, I have better things to do than to get into a business such as that."

With that, Rita walked past him and placed the envelope that held her pay in a drawer in her desk. Ikuto lifted an eyebrow at her, amazed by her nonchalant attitude.

"And what about you? You must have done something pretty bad to have to go into hiding, not like it's any of my business anyway." Rita said shrugging, not even waiting for Ikuto to answer.

Ikuto let out an exasperated sigh while rubbing his temples. 'This is going to be interesting...'

**~End of Chapter~**

* * *

Now you probably are wondering who this Rita character is. Well, she is from this RPG game called Tales of Vesperia, a game that I happily play at home. When I first saw her, I never would have expected that she would be the one with the fiery temper and violent tendencies, but that made her all the more awesome! XD I love her to bits and after planning a future fic of mine, I got the idea of pairing her up with Ikuto, since she is indeed a cat lover. The pairing came to me at random but I've grown to really like it. I think their personalities would match each other nicely, if they were to ever meet, however we all know that's never going to happen, except in my mind. X3 Anyways, enough of my useless rants, please review! (Did I scare any Tadamu fans thinking that I may have converted? XP)

This didn't come out the way I would have liked and if anyone has any suggestions on how to make it better, please tell me, 'cause I am dissatisfied with this as it is.

Oh and before I forget, Rita is 15 and is about 4'11"...Dang she is a shortie. Just like me! XD


End file.
